Hot Black-eyed Pea Dip

Brian isn't a big fan of Black-eyed peas. The musical group or the food. Brian didn't grow up in Texas or the South, so he never heard about the superstition to eat them on New Years for good luck. My grandfather (from the northern Midwest) didn't like them either and my grandmother used to sneak them into his food so he'd get his good luck.

I tried Texas Caviar one year for New Year's, he ate it but later said "eh."

I saw this recipe from the Pioneer Woman. Anything with melted cheese has to be good, and Brian love dip.  I altered it slightly, and he said he liked it. I thought it was good, but because I was worried about the heat, I omitted the hot sauce, used fresh jalepeno, mild salsa. It could have used a little more heat. Just a bit.

Here's the version I made:

Hot Black-eyed Pea Dip

1 can (14-ounce) Can Black-eyed Peas
1/4 cup Onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup Sour Cream
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh Jalapeno (or more to taste)
1/2 bell pepper, finely chopped
1 cup Grated Sharp White Cheddar Cheese
3 Tablespoons Salsa
Salt, chili powder, and Black Pepper To Taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drain black-eyed peas and partially mash, leaving some whole.
Add all other ingredients, stirring to combine.

Spread into a 1 1/2 quart baking dish and bake for 20 to 30 minutes until hot and bubbly.
Serve with tortilla chips

Brian grilled salmon on top of a spinach salad to go along with it. It was too nice of weather yesterday to not fire up the grill.

Happy New Year!

Schneeballen

Brian hates Christmas. At least he says he does. I don't blame him - I've had bouts where I hated it, and there are still some aspects I could live without. However, there's something magical about Christmas  you can't deny - twinkly lights, sugar highs, and food comas. Since Brian spent a chunk of his childhood in Germany, he got to experience German Christmas. He likes the tradition of Sankt Nikolaus day (December 6th) where you leave your shoes out for Saint Nicholas to fill them. But of course what he loves more is that Saint Nicholas has the Christmas devil, Krampus, with him to cart of bad children to hell (no lumps of coal for bad German kids - you go straight to hell!) He likes that Christmas. Another part of German Christmas he likes is the Christkindl Markt. One story he has is as a child walking around the Christkindl Markt eating Schneeballen and drinking gluhwein. His mother didn't understand why her kids were loaded with sugar, but got really quiet (because she didn't know gluhwein was actually wine). 

This Saint Nicholas Day, I thought I would try to make Schneeballen. I thought it would be easy, but you try finding a Schneeball recipe online! This librarian only found 2 after hours of searching. I went with the one that says it's from an old German Grandmother. Most sites I found kept linking back to that one. 

Schneeballen are a specialty of Rothenburg. They are basically strips of pastry dough, wound up into a ball, and deep fried and covered with powdered sugar (snowballs). They are also covered with icings, and chocolate, and other wonderful looking toppings. I decided I would try the traditional.  They were very hard to keep together in the oil (as the recipe says). In Rothenburg, they have special Schneeballen tongs to make the perfectly uniform balls. I used spaghetti spoon and held it up again the side of the fryer. It worked better to make the schneeballen in about 2 inch diameter as opposed to the near 4 I was trying. The one in the photo was the best looking one.  Most of them were not very pretty, but they were delicious!  A lot like a beignet, but a little more dense. 

Schneeballen
adapted from http://www.kitchenproject.com/german/recipes/Fasching/Schneeballen/index.htm.  

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour (more if needed)

2 egg yolks 

3 Tablespoons butter, softened (this was a guess since the recipe didn't list it, I just went by what the photograph looked like)

2 teaspoon milk 

2 teaspoons baking powder 

1 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup sour cream Dash of rum

I used a stand mixer with the dough hook. Use the pictures on the link above to see how to mix it by hand.

Blended the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar. 

Add the eggs and mix.

Add butter and mix.

Add sour cream, milk and a dash of rum.

Mix until firm dough ball forms. Cover ball with plastic wrap and chill.

Heat fryer to 350 degrees.

Roll out the dough as you  would make a pie crust. Cut dough into 1/2 inch strips.  

Roll strips into a ball by  twisting and knotting them together.

Using a spoon, ladle or whatever you can find, drop the dough down into the oil. Hold together with the utensil. Fry until golden brown and flip and cook the other side until brown. 

Place on paper towels to drain.  

Heavily dust with powdered sugar.

Big Dish Sweet Potatoes

All teenagers go through their angry teen moments. One of my most vivid memories of me be a whiny, pain-in-the-rump tween/teen was on Thanksgiving. It was the coldest Thanksgiving of my life, and not just because of the wind, freezing rain, and sleet. The real reason: my grandmother didn't make her sweet potatoes. I looked forward to them all year, and no sweet potatoes. I remember walking home early (they only lived just down the street) with the wet sleet stinging my bratty cheeks.

About 8 years later, my grandmother passed away and someone else had to take over sweet potatoes. I thought the only way I could secure that sweet potatoes would be on the table is if I made them. So, for the past 8 or so years, I've been in charge of the sweet potatoes. I did change up my grandmother's recipe slightly. Here's hers:

Big Dish Sweet Potatoes

3 Cans Sweet Potatoes
1 stick butter
1 cup evaporated milk
6 TBSP brown sugar
3 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. clove
3 cups marshmallows

Combine all ingredients until blended. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Put marshmallows on top, and bake for 5 minutes.

My Sweet Potatoes

4 large sweet potatoes
3/4 stick butter, melted
3/4 cup evaporated milk
5 TBSP brown sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
3 cups marshmallows

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Bake sweet potatoes on rack for 45-60 minutes (I place a cookie sheet on the rack underneath the rack with the potatoes to catch drippings. I know the potatoes are done when they start to bubble out a little bit). Remove potatoes and allow to cool until able to handle.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients except marshmallows until blended. Place in a baking dish and cook covered for 25 minutes. Remove lid and add marshmallows. Bake for 5 minutes or until marshmallows poof up and start to brown slightly.

This year I prepared everything the night before and refrigerate it, made it to my mom's house and stuck them in the oven 30 minutes before dinner time. You can't tell the difference at all. I'd really like to try heavy cream with them instead of the evaporated milk.

Sorry no pictures, but if means anything to you, Brian always said he hated sweet potatoes until he had mine.

Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving.

White Trashgiving Pictures

I hope Fran doesn't mind me posting pics from White Trashgiving, because here they are.

It should start at my tater tot casserole, and if you hit back you'll see the delicious fried stuffing balls!

White Trashgiving

This weekend, Brian and I attended the 2nd annual White Trashgiving. The perfect food for a White Trashgiving to me would be Tuna Wiggle (what my mom calls Tuna Noodle Casserole). However, the thought of that disturbs Brian, so last year I asked co-workers what type of food I could take, and one came through with, "Tater Tot Casserole." I make this one: Tater Tot Casserole via Cooks.com (there are quite a few different varieties via Cooks.com).

I followed the recipe, only adding a little more cheese. It is unbelievably easy to make. I do have to admit, it's very good! Perfect if you have to cook for picky kids.

Other food on the table this year were turkey quiche (which I didn't think was so W.T.), deviled eggs (can never go wrong with those!), fried Stove-top Stuffing balls (those were awesome!), Ritz crackers and squirt cheese in a can, turkey cornbread, and Brian made Chili dip again (which is 1 package cream cheese mixed with 1 can of chili and served with Fritos - W.T. and delicious!). White Chocolate Smores were for dessert, as well as chocolate cupcakes and snowballs.

Entertainment for the evening involved the repeated playing of "Dueling Banjos" from Deliverance on the record player, a game of Texas Hold 'Em, and frying random things in the deep fryer (a chocolate cupcake, a boiled egg, and bacon were attempted).

It was a lot of fun, especially with the honored guest being Mr. Jim Beam!

Halloween Food!

October 25th was our "Witch Burning and BBQ" or Ghoulish Grillout - which ever you prefer.

Where the food was located:

The food table:

Brian's iced sugar cookies (My favorite is the Frankenstein!):

Chocolate Peanut Butter Coffins:

Brian's Graveyard Cake with sugar cookie tombstones:
Brian also made Rotel Dip, Chili Dip, and Grilled Brauts. I made Mac and Cheese with halloween pasta. We also mixed up some Hallowtinis and Brian made Sangria.

Thanks to everyone that showed up to eat our food!

St. Agatha Cookies, or Moob Cookies

The other day at Target, we were waiting in line and Brian starts singing, "It's beginning to look a lot like Halloween..." and pulls out this bag of Hershey's Halloween Pumpkin Spice Kisses:

The are white chocolate, with an orange-colored spiced white chocolate covering. Brian loves Halloween as much as the crazy neighbor I had growing up loved Christmas (she's start putting out decorations in mid-October, she had 2 trees, lights galore, and even played Christmas music from speakers in her trees. My mom couldn't sleep with the light coming in the windows.).

So I thought, I could make a blossom cookie - you know, like those peanut butter blossom cookies with the chocolate kiss in the center... The one's that look like this:
(which, incidentally first appeared in a Pillsbury Bake off in 1957).

I decided on a sugar cookie that said it didn't spread: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Soft-Sugar-Cookies-IV/Detail.aspx.

I followed the recipe, rolled them in a sugar and pumpkin spice mix, and popped a kiss on top. Then baked for 10 minutes. When they were in the oven, I took a peak and saw the kisses were not holding their shape. I told Brian, "They look like nipples." When I pulled them out of the oven, all I saw was nipples.

Brian said, "They look like Man Boobs! I'm calling them Moob Cookies." He wanted to do black dye squiggle lines on them for hair. He also said we could roll them in green sugar and call them "Witch's Tits." I tried putting the kisses in the freezer for the next batch, but that didn't work. In fact, I made it worse by overcooking the next batch. As the baking went on, I thought I should name them after a saint that was martyred by having her breasts ripped off. I found St. Agatha, who not only had her breasts ripped off and she is often depicted with them on a platter, but she is also the patron saint of bakers! So there you go... St. Agatha cookies (Brian is still calling them Moobs). Oh, they do taste pretty good though, but the cookie wasn't as soft as I hoped.

I know I'm super childish, but I couldn't resist this shot:

Blackberry Cobbler

This Independence Day, Brian and I joined the rest of my family for a supper-duper over-the-top American day: we went to a baseball game (the Grand Prairie Airhogs) and there were fireworks following the game (at Lone Star Park). I don't know if is because Independence Day was this week, or just because Brian and I were at Farmer's Market last Sunday and every single booth had buckets and buckets of blackberries, but I decided I wanted to make a blackberry cobbler. Blackberry Cobbler just seems so American to me. More so than apple pie. I've never made an apple pie, and to be honest, I'm not always a huge fan of them.

The librarian in me decided to do some research:

The blackberry is a trailing-to-erect bramble,
usually spiny, in the genus Rubus of the family Rosaceae (rose). Blackberries occur throughout the world, with the exception of dry desert regions, but the greatest number are in the Northern Hemisphere. Commercial production is largely limited to the United States, where the principal producers are Oregon, Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. Important types are Thornless Evergreen, Marion, Boysen, Olallie, Cherokee, Comanche, Cheyenne, Humble, and Darrow. Loganberry is a trailing type with purplish fruit that is different in many respects from other blackberries; most taxonomists consider it a true and separate species.

copied from: Moore, J. N. "blackberry." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia.
Grolier Online http://gme.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assetid=0034920-0
(accessed June 30, 2008).

According the same online encyclopedia, Europe produces more apples than the U.S., however most of those apples go to making Cider and Brandy (those smart Europeans). Also, according to What's Cooking America, apple pies pre-date the U.S. by a couple hundred years.

A lot of people ask me if the Internet will make libraries and books obsolete. If anything, I think the Internet has helped libraries and books. It shows how overwhelming the volume of information is out there, and many people would prefer to have a professional sift through it for them (at least in my library). Also, according to the Association of American Publishers, the "U.S. publishers had net sales of $25 billion in 2007; a 3.2 percent increase from 2006 with a compound growth rate of 2.5 percent per year since 2002." So, no, we're not hurting. I will admit that I almost always turn to the Internet at the beginning of a reference interview, and often find all the info I need to pass on to them on either the Internet or an online database. However, I feel so dumb when someone asks a factual question, and I turn to the Internet first and spend way too much trying to find a legitamate site, instead of just pulling out the World Almanac and Book of Facts, where I can find the answer in seconds.

So here I am sitting at home, googling "blackberry cobbler" which pulls up over 83,000 hits. Now I'm sure there are some great recipes there. However, on my day off, I don't feel like sifting through them. On a whim, I get off my butt, walk over to my cookbook shelf, and pull out the big yellow Gourmet cookbook. And what do you know, right there in the index "cobbler, blackberry 815-816." It is the only cobbler in the big book, and it happens to be exactly the kind I want to make. If you can't trust Ruth Reichl when it comes to food, who can you trust?

I didn't make it in the cast iron skillet, but overall it was okay. I wanted more dough. I added some cinnamon to it. Some ginger would have been a nice addition to the blackberries.